


Halloween Treats

by jujukittychick



Series: 1_million_words bingo [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Kid!vengers, Mild Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, mentions of canon horrible childhoods, poor Phil is not paid enough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27633062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujukittychick/pseuds/jujukittychick
Summary: Phil takes his 5 tiny team members to a Halloween Carnival.  What could go wrong
Series: 1_million_words bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017552
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17
Collections: 1 Million Words' BINGO





	Halloween Treats

**Author's Note:**

> for Fall Bingo at LJ’s 1_million_words and the card [I picked](https://jujukittychick.livejournal.com/48285.html), Halloween & Horror #2 - prompts Candy From a Stranger, (Babysitting Alone used in previous fic), Hayride, and Too Good To Be True. Fun story, the "candy from a stranger" scene towards the end is what helped prompt this two part series after it popped in my head.
> 
> I loved hearing how much you loved the first one of this series. This is complete now, there will be no more in this universe, sorry.

Phil had told Nick this would happen, and of course  _ he _ was the one stuck dealing with the consequences, as usual. Just like he had predicted, the kids found out it was almost Halloween thanks to a flier in the newspaper that was delivered. That wouldn’t have been too bad, except that the flier was an ad for a Halloween carnival going on at the nearby park. It was hard to say no to the group of kids as they were so excited about the idea, even little Natasha once he’d explained to her in Russian what the boys were so worked up about. And the more he thought about it, and the more he remembered the kinds of actual childhoods the five superheroes had had, he decided he couldn’t deprive them of a chance for a potential happy memory.

Decision made, he called in some agents to spread out through the park in plain clothes, just in case. The kids were all pretty good about following directions, even Tony surprisingly, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last in a carnival situation with all the distractions that would be there. Bundling the kids up in long sleeves and coats he’d had delivered to the safehouse, he went over the rules for their trip one more time, repeating it in Russian after each one. “Alright, you all understand that we have to stay together. Stay in pairs and hold each other’s hands so no one can run off on their own. It should be safe where we’re going, but we don’t know if any of you will have a side effect from whatever made you little again.” 

And that had taken forever to explain, that they were actually adults that had been turned into little kids. He didn’t even go into the fact that they were superheroes. Of course, the fact that he was having to explain the modern world to Steve who had still thought it was the ‘30s until he saw the TV and Phil’s cellphone, and repeat everything in Russian to Natasha who spoke no English at six years old, only added to the chaos.

Herding the children out the door, gun tucked away in its holster under his coat, he made sure he had an inhaler and epipen for Steve tucked in his pocket, because reading about it was one thing, but seeing how small and frail he was as a child in reality was terrifying. He also had a low dose tranquilizer on hand just in case Bruce got worked up and turned out to still have the Hulk on board, because he had no idea what would happen with a child sized Hulk on a rampage. Wondering how actual parents managed to handle these kinds of things on a daily basis, he guided the kids down the sidewalk for the couple of blocks it took to get to the park.

As soon as they got to the park, the kids all seemed to freeze and stare in wonder at the rides and booths scattered around, well except for nine year old Clint who was looking around with a calculating look on his face and Phil was trying to remember how old the archer was when he’d joined the circus. With Natasha holding his offhand, Clint holding Bruce’s and Steve holding Tony’s, they set off into the noise and bustle of the crowd. They hadn’t gone too far before Clint was stopping in front of one of the booths, eyes narrowed. Making sure the other boys didn’t go anywhere, Phil looked at the booth and had to laugh to himself. It was one of the skill games - pop the balloons with darts to win a prize. “Did you want to try, Clint?”

Clint turned a surprised stare up to him. “Can I, sir?”

Wondering again about when Clint’s abilities really developed, he handed the money over to the booth attendant and accepted the darts. “Here you go, Clint, just try your best.”

Clint rolled his eyes at him, like he would do anything else, and took the darts. Looking at the other kids he said, “Which ones should I hit?”

As the kids pointed out which balloons they thought he should pick, the attendant smiling indulgently, Phil bit back a smile. Either they had kept some of their adult traits or some things had never changed. The attendant went from indulgent to shocked in less than two minutes as Clint nodded and proceeded to quickly throw the darts at the selected balloons, popping every single one of them, the boys cheering while Natasha clapped. 

Giving the attendant a completely innocent smile, Clint pointed to one of the stuffed animals. “That one please.” 

Phil snorted, yeah, not much had changed. The boy had picked the brightest purple bear he’d ever seen, then proceeded to trip over nothing as he turned around, though Bruce and Tony caught him before he could hurt himself. “Great job, Clint.”

Clint froze in the process of handing the bear to Natasha, staring up at Phil wide-eyed. His voice sounding a little wobbly, he said quietly, “I didn’t...it wasn’t...”

Remembering everything he’d learned about Clint over the years, Phil squatted down so he’d be at eye level and reached out to cup the boy’s face. “Honestly, Clint. What you did was amazing. Not many adults could do what you did, much less children. That took a lot of skill and you did it perfectly. You should be proud of yourself. We all are.”

Clint looked at the others who all nodded and chimed in their own agreements, Natasha hugging her new bear tightly, and stood up straighter, a trembling smile tilting his lips before quickly hugging the older man. “Thank you, sir.”

Feeling his heart clench, Phil hugged him back. “You’re welcome.” Standing up, he looked at the others and around at the other booths. “So, where should we go next?”

~~

Steve got fascinated by the face painting booth, and after doing a test swatch on his hand to check for any odd allergic reactions he might have, the five children took turns getting their faces painted after laughingly picking out more and more outrageous pictures in the sample book. Phil even consented to having the Avengers “A” symbol, which he’d had to explain to the children earlier in the week, painted on his cheek which made all the children cheer. Making a decision, he asked the woman to take a picture as he knelt down, arms around the kids as they all made faces for the camera.

Not surprisingly, Tony and Bruce got fascinated by a tent showcasing a local school’s robot competition and science fair, the two arguing good naturedly about some of the experiments and Phil honestly didn’t know if it was stuff they should have known at their ages or not. Natasha and Clint held hands as they followed the two boys, Clint occasionally lifting her up a little so she could see the displays better. Phil followed behind them, carrying Steve who’d gotten too tired and started to have problems breathing. As they walked along the robot display, Phil’s heart broke a little as he heard Steve sniffle and say quietly, “I wish Bucky was here; he’d love it.” Hugging the boy closer to himself, he smoothed his hair back, “I’m sure he would.”

Natasha got distracted by the petting zoo, eagerly pulling Clint along as she babbled happily in Russian at the different farm animals. Even though the boys couldn’t really understand her, they all seemed happy to indulge the youngest of the group, happily saying the English names of the animals she pointed to while they petted the different animals. 

~~

After having stopped to eat some lunch and let the children rest for a bit, Phil was following along behind the boys, carrying Natasha on his hip, when she tapped his shoulder, whispering against his neck,  _ “Watching us.” _

Continuing as if nothing had happened, he nuzzled her hair, “ _ Who is watching us?” _

She tapped his opposite shoulder, “ _ Blonde woman behind us.” _

Calling the boys to wait a moment, he knelt down, pretending to tie his shoe as he glanced behind him on the side she had tapped. Picking Natasha back up, he smoothed her hair down. “ _ Very good, Natasha. She is watching us, but she’s one of my agents, so it’s okay. You can ignore her.” _

Natasha nodded where she had her head resting on his shoulder, bear tucked against her chest. “ _ Should teach her to hide better.” _

Phil started laughing, and hugged the little girl, one of the best spies he had. “ _ Yes, I guess I should.” _

~~

The day was winding down and the children were starting to grow tired after a full day of playing games and riding some of the tamer rides. They had just neared the entrance, when Bruce tugged on Phil’s hand, pointing to some horse drawn carts lined with hay bales. “Can we see the horses?”

Phil looked at the others and saw the interest on their faces and nodded. “Alright, how about, you guys stand on the sidewalk and look at the horses and I’ll see about us going on the hayride?” As the kids cheered, Phil walked over to the nearby vendor and paid for the group to take a ride, keeping the kids in sight the entire time.

As he walked back to the kids, he saw the cart driver, dressed as a scarecrow, walk up to them with a basket of cookies. “Hey there. Would you all like a cookie for the ride?”

Clint stared suspiciously at the man. “My brother told me never to take things from strangers.”

“And you sure are strange looking!”

“ _ Tony!” _ The three other boys fussed at him.

“What? He is!”

“Well, I’m not quite a stranger. I’m Lucas; I’ll be driving the cart for the hayride.”

Having seen the other cart drivers handing out the cookies to their passengers as well, Phil debated for a moment before nodding. “If you want one, you can all have one.”

Getting the kids all settled, he got comfortable as well and passed the basket of cookies around, taking one for himself. Nibbling on the cookies, the children looked around the park trail the driver took them down, the path decorated for the season. As they rode deeper into the woods, it grew darker, the trees blocking out the fading sunlight.

“Agent?” Because of course Tony refused to call him anything except that, “I feel funny.”

“Me too, Mr. Coulson.”

Phil,realizing he’d zoned out somehow, looked from Tony to Bruce who were both starting to slump over to Natasha and Clint who had apparently fallen asleep on each other to Steve who had curled up into a little ball, shivering. “Wha...Wha’s goin’ on…” Phil slurred as he looked toward the driver.

Bright green eyes met Phil’s and a teasing smirk graced the aristocratic face. “Just setting something to rights. Don’t worry, Agent. It’ll all be clear in the morning.”

“I don’...don’...understan’...” Phil struggled to stay awake, to pull his gun, to do anything. Shame washing through him at letting his small charges down. At least his agents should be close behind. They should...should…

~~

“Oh, god, what the hell was I drinking?”

“Whatever it was, don’t share next time. Ow! Nat!”

“Too loud.”

“Where are we?”

“How did I even  _ get _ drunk?”

Phil came to slowly, the voices of his team sinking into his clouded mind and bringing him into full consciousness. Gasping, he sat upright, looking around at his  _ adult _ team, that somehow were dressed in adult sized versions of the kids clothes they’d been in before, small favors he wouldn’t have to deal with public nudity charges against the Avengers. Looking around, he saw the cart was abandoned in some clearing in the woods off the park and the sun high in the sky.

“You’re…” He coughed, clearing his throat. “You’re all back to normal. Do you remember anything?”

It took them all several minutes to become fully functional again, Phil calling his agents for help and finding out that apparently his group, and the trackers on them, had disappeared at some point during the ride. With rescue on its way, he started apologizing. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have let you eat those cookies. I saw them being offered to the other carts so I thought it would be alright. If something had happened…”

“Don’t worry about it, Agent. You did all you could, and more than…” Tony looked at his teammates and the serious faces they all had, “and probably more than a lot of people we’ve known would have.”

“Besides, Agent Coulson, I think that the, uh, the driver was Loki? Am I remembering that right?”

Phil scrubbed his face, remembering the conversation with the driver, the bright green eyes and the smirk. “I think so…”

“Then, whether we ate those cookies or not, he still could have knocked us all out. At least he, uh, helped us this time?”

Phil looked at the exhausted superheroes. “Are all of you feeling back to normal? Nothing strange? Any lapses in memory?” As they all agreed they more or less felt fine, if tired, he relaxed. “It seems too good to be true that Loki decided to  _ help _ for a change, but honestly, having you guys back to normal without some giant struggle is too much of a blessing to argue with.”

~~

After they were picked up and taken back to the Tower and spent the night in the medical ward for observation just in case, things more or less returned to normal. The team was closer than ever and even more attached to Phil, much to Fury’s amusement.

And if a certain picture of Phil with a group of face-painted kids was printed and framed and placed on the dresser in Phil’s Tower bedroom with an obnoxiously purple bear sitting next to it, well, only the team was there to see his reaction on seeing it and they weren’t telling anyone.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Curious about what other crazy ideas I've had? Check out my [plot bunny page](https://jujubunnies.freeforums.net/). You can comment on existing ideas or leave your own requests.
> 
> I'm also back on [LiveJournal](https://jujukittychick.livejournal.com/) now, so you can send me PMs or see the random things I'm working on as I use it to post ideas and stuff


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